Speaking of… sex toys with Ethan Imboden from Jimmyjane [TCTV]

Vibrating sex toys have been around for over a century, starting out as crude steam powered devices and now resembling something very cool that you might pick up at an Apple store. Sex toys have been the source of giggles, controversy, pleasure and up until the last 5 years, were not a mainstream product. They were devices you bought and had shipped in unmarked brown packaging or slipped into a toy store late at night to buy, but were not something you’d ever imagine picking up at Nordstrom or your local Wal-Mart.

Millions of men and women use them every day and yet, it isn’t something we talk about much. Considering there’s a lot of tech that go into these devices these days, I think it is a topic worth exploring and definitely something we should no longer be ashamed of.

Today’s episode of Speaking Of covers the journey of an amazingly brave entrepreneur, Ethan Imboden, Chairman of Jimmyjane, who set out to design something meaningful that would change people’s lives. He’s not the first to create a stigma free product. Many cool products have been sold in stores like Good Vibrations for years, but he’s the first to bring a safe, non-toxic, sexy, virtually stigma free brand to the mainstream market. His efforts were what I consider truly disruptive and changed the landscape for the availability of pleasure toys for consumers everywhere. I’ll never forget the day I saw one of his products in a local lingerie store and how I started stumbling into them at mainstream stores everywhere. Seeing these products available to people in comfortable settings brought me so much joy and I’m excited to be able to share his journey into creating such a wonderful product with all of you.

Ethan shares his journey of starting out as an electrical engineer, becoming a designer for Herman Miller and how he was encouraged to start revolutionizing the sex toy space. We learn about him as a DJ, world-traveler and the fact that his arch nemesis designer was the guy who designed Swingline staplers. At the end of the episode, we get a tour of some of his products that are quite stimulating to look at and at the time of the interview, he hinted at the launch of their new Form 4 product, which is now available.

We have one product giveaway for commenters. Best, most insightful comment on the sex toy industry wins one of Jimmyjane’s awesome products that they gave to us in the studio. The deadline is Sunday 6pm PT. You must be 18 years old to win.

Congrats to Taylor Alexander and Kay Pamela Ray for winning!

Ethan Imboden – Photo credit: Laist.com